1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door structure provided for coming into and going out of a restroom installed in an aircraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, doors of various opening/closing types have been used as restroom doors provided for coming into and going out of a restroom installed in an aircraft. At present, the types have become standardized as two types, i.e., a hinge panel type (opening outward) and a folding type (folding inward).
Because the hinge panel type door is basically an outward opening door that opens outward of the restroom, the door may block an aisle in front of the restroom when it opens. Such a door structure may obstruct passengers and crew escaping through the aisle in an emergency. Moreover, the open door is not designed to close automatically and needs to be closed manually. Because the folding type door is less common in houses and general buildings, passengers are likely to be confused about how to use it and the door is not really easy to use. Although the folding door folds inside the restroom and it does not block an aisle in opening and closing, the door in the folded state moves in a space in the restroom and a passenger needs to avoid the moving door.
If a passenger in a wheelchair uses the restroom, a locus of the folding type door interferes with the wheelchair. Therefore, the folding type door cannot be used as a door for a wheelchair restroom. Therefore, a restroom having the hinge panel type door is necessary for passengers using wheelchairs and two types of doors are often necessary in the same aircraft, which is disadvantageous to many users. Moreover, the folding door is opened by pulling a handle at a central hinge portion of the door and therefore it is difficult for a passenger with a hand disability to open the door from inside.
As described above, although there are doors moving in various manners, no restroom door satisfying requirements peculiar to aircraft such as functions, safety, maintainability, and light weight has been provided so far.
There is an example of a structure of a restroom unit for aircraft, which is formed compactly so that it can be installed in a small airplane, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-6915. In this restroom unit for the aircraft, a door that can be opened and closed is provided on a side face of a restroom main body integrally formed in a box shape. This door is merely shown as left and right split doors and does not go much beyond conventional doors.
There is also an opening and closing device suitable for emergency or rescue activities with a door that can be opened or closed normally at normal times but can be opened or closed in an opposite direction (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-324473). This door opening and closing device is provided with a door frame, a door body (door panel) for opening and closing an opening portion of the door frame, door body supporting means supporting the door body in the opening portion so that the door body can be opened or closed, and door stops for holding the door body in a closed position. Door stops are located at a side wall of the opening portion made up of the door frame. The door body can be opened or closed by pulling toward a user or pushing in a door thickness direction at normal times but the door body can be forcibly opened in the opposite direction to the normal opening and closing direction. At normal times, the opening and closing direction of the door body is restricted by the door stops and the door body can be opened or closed toward the user or forward away from the user. On the other hand, the door body can be forcibly opened in the opposite direction to the normal opening and closing direction. Therefore, even if a person has fallen down on an indoor side where a door end side of the door body moves and the person who fell down obstructs the movement, the door body can be forcibly opened in the opposite direction.
There is also a slide-swing type door device in which a door panel is opened or closed by swinging the door panel in a front-rear direction while sliding the door panel in a width (lateral) direction. This door device has excellent partitioning properties (hermeticity, sound insulating properties), ease of opening and closing operations, space saving properties in opening and closing, and a compact entire device structure inherently required of doors. Moreover, door fitting works and maintenance are facilitated, the device is excellent in appearance, and is free of barriers, which is an improvement in usability (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-248822).
There is also a slide-swing type door formed by providing a door panel in a frame body forming an opening portion so as to swing open or close in a front-rear direction while sliding in a width direction of the opening portion. The door includes a support fixed along one vertical frame of the frame body, a shaft body arranged along a longitudinal direction inside the support, support means for supporting the shaft body so that the shaft body can turn around its axis inside the support, and an upper rotation arm and a lower rotation arm having one ends secured respectively to upper and lower ends of the rotating shaft body and the other ends turnably supported at predetermined positions of an upper end face and a lower end face of the door panel (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-242524).
Furthermore, there is also a swing-slide type door device in which a door panel slides while swinging along support bodies such as rails to thereby open or close a door opening and which can secure sealing properties of the door panel in a closed state of the door and enables a smooth opening operation of the door (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-266548).
The space-saving and compact swing type door structure used for coming into and going out of the aircraft restroom has problems to be solved, i.e., to automatically close the door when a user of the restroom forgets to close it and to easily open the closed door and detach the door from a door frame by crew for security without using tools.